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February 4, 2009

Solar plant coming to V'land

By KRISTI FUNDERBURK
Staff Writer

VINELAND -- A piece of vacant land soon will welcome two vast fields of solar panels, giving the city an edge in green technology while saving the utility money.

Vineland Municipal Electric Utility, Conectiv Energy and Landis Sewerage Authority officials announced Tuesday a collaborative plan to design and build a 4-megawatt solar-generating plant here.

When completed next June, the solar panel fields will be one of the largest in the state, VMEU Director Joseph Isabella said.

The project will help the utility reach an aggressive goal of producing 25 percent renewable energy by 2015, he said. The state energy master plan calls for municipalities to be 30 percent renewable by 2020.

"I believe this is a step in the right direction for us," Isabella said. "It's sort of an indication of what's possible in the future when you have an administration that's supportive and folks who know how to negotiate things."

The solar panels will cover 28 acres in two adjacent 14-acre sections at the Landis Sewerage Authority on Mill Road.

At maximum output, a solar plant that size could service between 400 and 500 average-sized homes, Isabella said. That energy will be pumped into VMEU's power grid and benefit all ratepayers' homes, he said.

The partners call the project Vineland Solar One.

Isabella said he and Mayor Robert Romano had a discussion when he first took office in July about the future needs of the city's electric utility. The solar project is among their biggest goals, he said Tuesday.

"We agreed we needed to get customer costs in control or lower customer costs, and also make the VMEU decidedly greener, and if you look at this project, we've done both of those," Isabella said.

Conectiv will foot the project cost, which Art Agra, chief financial officer for Conectiv, estimated at about $5,000 per kilowatt, or $20 to $24 million.

The photovoltaic thin-film panels are a fairly new technology, Agra said. He said they last about 25 years longer and work better than other panels, "So it's a pretty exciting technology to bring here."

The term of agreement is 25 years, at which point the city can buy the fields from Conectiv.

With its participation, Conectiv expands its green energy portfolio and supports state-mandated renewable energy requirements, Agra said.

The Newark-based energy firm earns tax benefits from the federal government for participation in solar projects, unlike the municipally owned electric utility.

But the VMEU still will earn some competitive advantages because Conectiv is willing to share its tax benefits, Isabella said.

VMEU officials say the solar fields won't result in a direct reduction in electric rates, but they will save the utility about $100,000 a year.

The fields will provide the VMEU a roughly 3 to 5 percent discount on energy, a 20 percent discount on capacity charges, and another 20 percent discount on transmission charges, Isabella said.

Dennis Palmer, executive director and chief engineer for Landis Sewerage Authority, said the project makes the authority an "environmental power park."

The 1,800-acre property already includes a co-generation plant, the largest in New Jersey, that treats wastewater and returns it back to the ground, he said.

"This is one more piece of a large recycling and environmentally sound stewardship on the authority property," Palmer said.

Agra said the first field could be in place by the end of summer or the end of 2009 at the latest, depending on how quickly the panels come in. The second field would be ready by June 2010.

The utility also is trying to install solar panels on its operations buildings at the H.M. Down Station on West Avenue, and is looking to expand that effort to several city buildings, Isabella said.

The efforts are part of a solar energy program, adding to the utility's green footprint while complementing a proposed new 60-megawatt simple-cycle generating unit, he said.